The Horseshoe Casino in Harrison County, In. The Casino was the former Caesars Indiana casino. (By Chris Hall, The Courier-Journal) 7/11/08

Written by

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener

When lawmakers first headed down the path of state-authorized gambling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they seemed cognizant that the tax revenues that would follow were a lucrative, yet unstable source of revenue.

The state didn't establish the Hoosier Lottery to directly benefit education, as many states have done. Lawmakers put restrictions on the use of local casino tax revenue to try to prevent those communities from building the dollars into the budgets used for everyday expenses.

And the General Assembly set aside a big chunk of gambling dollars for local projects, essentially ...